Greenpeace says today\u2019s court decision over the Ruataniwha Dam is a major victory in the struggle against big irrigation and the nationwide intensification of dairying.<\/p>\n
Today the Supreme Court has held that an area of conservation land cannot have its protected status revoked to make way for the Ruataniwha irrigation dam. <\/p>\n
The Government tried to appeal an earlier decision of the Court of Appeal which in effect meant the land could not be flooded. Today it failed.<\/p>\n
The dam would have driven land conversions to intensive dairying and further river pollution. It has faced huge opposition locally and nationally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ruataniwha dam would have meant more industrial dairying and more pollution in our rivers so today\u2019s court ruling is also a win for our rivers,\u201d says Greenpeace Campaigner, Gen Toop.<\/p>\n
“Conservation land belongs to all New Zealanders, not to companies wanting to destroy it for private profit. ” she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf the court had allowed the Government to carry out its destructive plans for the Ruataniwha Dam, it would have set a dangerous precedent for New Zealand\u2019s conservation estate had Forest and Bird not stepped up to challenge the Government\u2019s plans.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also sends a clear message to other irrigation projects around the country,\u201d says Toop. \u201cThey will be challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are several large irrigation schemes planned being subsidised by the government\u2019s $480 million irrigation fund, like Central Plains Water and Hunter Downs in Canterbury.<\/p>\n
Nearly 90,000 people have signed a petition demanding the Government stops funding big irrigation schemes.<\/p>\n
Greenpeace is demanding that those irrigation subsidies be spent on a transition fund to more sustainable forms of farming.<\/p>\n
The environmental organisation is crowdfunding\u00a0 to release a new hard hitting TV ad warning people about the risks of intensive dairying and big irrigation.<\/p>\n
The last controversial ad attracted complaints from Dairy NZ but they were thrown out by the Advertising Standards Authority.<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greenpeace says today\u2019s court decision over the Ruataniwha Dam is a major victory in the struggle against big irrigation and the nationwide intensification of dairying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[22],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-freshwater","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n